Finland, a nation whose population of 6.5 million is smaller than that of the Washington, DC, metro area, has produced a wildly disproportionate share of the world’s leading conductors. The New York Times’ Joshua Barone profiles the teacher whose studio has produced this constellation of podium stars.
His subject is Jorma Panula, the 93-year-old teacher of generations of the country’s conductors: Osmo Vänskä, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Sakari Oramo, Mikko Franck, Susanna Mälkki, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Klaus Mäkelä . . . the list goes on and on.
A teacher of few words – “I was in the orchestra, and most musicians, they hate talking” – and a gruff, at times sarcastic, manner, Panula “values close readings of scores, which to him entail more than simply following the notes on the page, Barone writes. ‘I can see in their faces if they know the music or not,’ he said, which means also knowing a composer’s particular style, as well as background. ‘What kind of literature were they reading?’ he added as an example. ‘What opera did they see? What ballet?’ ”
Panula “teaches every student to become his or her own teacher,” says Dalia Stasevka, chief conductor of Finland’s Lahti Symphony Orchestra. “What is so brilliant about his teaching is that it leads to giving space to grow and find your personal style in conducting.”
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